Some odd Chinese Advertisements.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 813, 30 September 1887, Page 9

Some odd Chinese Advertisements.

The North China Herald quotes several curious specimens of a class of advertisements quite common in Chinese newspapers. A husband whose wife has eloped from him inserts sn advertisement, in which he details at considerable length the circumstances under which he married the lady and the story of her elopement. He married her in July, 1878, and he goes on to say r We lived together as husband and wife in kindness and affection for seven years, nor was there any change in our peaceful re'ations. My wife is twenty-seven years old this year. In July, 18S3, I followed the Ko ching battalion (the * courteous and tranquil ’ battalion which the late Viceroy Tso Tsung-t’ang brought with him through the Settlements here) to their quarters at the West Gate. As my son was also on duty with the detachment, my wife and I took up our residence at Shanghai. In the March of this present year we removed to the Huifang Lou, when, it seems, my wife, under the pseudonym of Chou Ai-ch’ing (Chou 1, Amoureuse), began to frequent the Ti-i-Lou’ where she would sip tea—circumstances of which I was at the time in total ignorance. Later on, on the 15th of the Sth moon a Huchou man, whose name aud surname I do not know, went privately with my wife, nde Kung, to the temple to burn incense. He had the effrontery to wear a blue button and the medallions and beads of an official. This went on until at eight o’clock on the night of the 17th of this month my wife secretly fled from the house, carrying a bundle with her, I cross-questioned the nurse and so became acquainted with the preceding facts. I cannot control my wrath and bitterness. My wife, nee Kung, has, it is plain, been enticed away by this rascal's deceit. How, I wonder, can a mere tailor’s block succeed) in beguiling a girl who has a lawful husband ? Surely he has not law or. justice before his eyes 1 It is on this- account that I am advertising. Should any kind-hearted gentleman who can give me information do so by, letter I am ready to reward him with 2Qdols.;. should he bring her back, I will gratefully give him AOdols. I will most ceutainly. not eat my words. His kindness and benevolence for a myriad generations to all eternity shall not be forgotten. But before my eyes is still my one-year.-oM baby girl, wailing and weeping, night and morning. Should that rsacal presume on his position and obstinately retain her mother as his mistress, not only to all eternity shall be be infamous, not only shall be. cut short the line of his ancestors, and be bereft of posterity, but we three, father, and son, and little daughter, will alike risk our lives to punish him. I hope and trust he will think thrice and so avoid an after repentance, I make this plain declaration expressly. Letters may be addressed either to No. 4, Hui-fang Lou, or to my niece’s husband, Hsia Loa-saa, at the Yung-10, The advertisement tells a sad story, nor is the pathos at qll lessened by the artlessuess.

-cf the writer who thus lbts his soul bare 'to the newspaper reading ipublic. Here is a piteous appeal worthy of the agony column of the Times. The title is very striking : Avoid incurring death by thunder ! —Your mother is weeping bitterly as she writes this for her boy Joy to see. When you ran away on the 30thef the Bth moon the people •f the shop came and inquired for you, and that was the first news we had. I nearly died of fear at the time, and since then sleep and food have been in vain, and I am weeping and sobbing still. The letter that came from beyond the horizon I have, but it gives no place or abode where I might seek you. I am even now at my last gasp, and the family ha 3 suffered for many days from grievous insults of others. If you delay longer and do not return, I cannot, cannot bear it, and shall surely seek an end to my life, and then you will stand in peril of death by thunder. If you come, no matter how, everything is sure to be arranged. I have thought of a plan, and your father may still be kept iu ignorance. JMy life or death hangs on the issue of these few days. Only I pray that all kindhearted people everywhere will spread this abroad, so that the right man may hear of it. So will they lay up for themselves a boundless store of secret merit.—Written by one in Soochow city. We shall quote one more:— Lost to day, a slave girl named Feng-p’ing (‘the Pheenix Screen’), aged jnst fouiteen years, a Cantonese, dark complexioned, with slightly protrusive front teeth, dressed in a tunic of blue cotton, with a green wadded cotton jacket, black cotton drawers, white stockings and cloth shoes, hut with nothing farther on. She went out this morning at eight o’clock to buy things and has not been seen to return. Should any one know of her whereabouts and inform me by letter I will recompense him with two large pieces .of gilt silver. Should he detain her and bring her back I will recompense him with ten large pieces. I will assuredly not eat my words. A notice. Advertisment by Wu Shunch'eog, of the 1-ch‘ang-ch‘ieD, near the Second Ferry.